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MBA News: GMAT Integrated Reasoning Score “Not Important” for Majority of Schools

If the GMAT’s new Integrated Reasoning section has been keeping you up at night, you may find a bit of solace in Kaplan Test Prep’s recently completed survey of 152 admissions officers from U.S. business schools. According to Kaplan, 57% of the MBA programs said the Integrated Reasoning (IR) score “is not currently an important part of their evaluation of a prospective student’s overall GMAT score.” This data point suggests a more decisive view over last year’s survey (2012), in which 54% of admissions officers said they were unsure about the IR score’s importance.

Nevertheless, the results do not suggest the GMAT will be any less daunting an application component for this year’s candidates. The Kaplan survey also revealed that 51% of its respondents indicated a low GMAT score was “the biggest application killer.”

Moreover, we should note that many of this year’s applicants submitted GMAT scores that may be up to five years old—potentially predating the addition of the IR section to the test. “Moving forward, business schools may decide that Integrated Reasoning should play a more critical role,” explains the executive director of pre-business programs for Kaplan, adding, “In the meantime, prospective MBA students should not take Integrated Reasoning any less seriously than the Quantitative or Verbal sections. It still matters.”




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